The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for signaling receipt of an incoming telephone call. More specifically, the invention provides for replacing the traditional telephone ring that signals receipt of an incoming phone call with a short verbal announcement that indicates that the recipient has received an incoming phone call.
Currently, a called party is notified of an incoming telephone call from a calling party by the ringing of the called party""s telephone. Whereas the ringing of the telephone provides the information that the called party has received an incoming call, no other information is provided to the called party about the phone call. Thus, the called party does not know who the call is from, the subject of the call, etc.
It is also currently known how to provide limited information to a called party about an incoming phone call. For example, caller identification systems (xe2x80x9ccaller IDxe2x80x9d) can provide the called party with information about the calling party""s telephone number and name. However, there is much more information about the call and the calling party that could be useful to the called party that current telephone systems are not able to provide. This additional information could be the topic of the phone call, the urgency of the call, and the estimated duration of the call, e.g., a short question versus a lengthy chat. In addition, it may be useful to convey social information about the call such as whether the caller is apologetic about the hour of the call or is angry or excited. In natural conversation, this information is conveyed through a rich set of linguistic and intonation cues. While this information could be crucial to a called party""s decision of whether to accept the incoming call or not, in traditional telephony, there is no way to convey this information to the called party prior to call completion.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for providing additional information to a called party when signaling a called party regarding an incoming telephone call.
The drawbacks in the prior art are overcome by the present invention for a voice-ringing system. In accordance with the present invention, the traditional telephone ring for notifying a called party about an incoming phone call is replaced by a short verbal announcement that is provided by the calling party when placing the phone call. The called party, instead of being alerted to the telephone call by a ringing sound, would hear the verbal announcement as provided by the caller. For example, the called party may hear, xe2x80x9cHi, this is Joan. I just have a quick question.xe2x80x9d In a manner similar to traditional telephone ringing, the announcement is repeated until the call is answered or until the caller abandons the unanswered call.
One implementation for the voice-ringing system of the present invention is to utilize the Internet as a signaling channel. The calling party establishes a phone call by utilizing a communications device that is connected to both the Internet and to a voice network. The verbal announcement is transmitted to the called party""s communications device as a signal transmitted over the Internet. The called party hears the verbal announcement, i.e., voice-ring, on a communications device that is also connected to both the Internet and a voice network. When the called party indicates that the call should be accepted, a return signal is sent to the calling party""s communication device. When the return signal is received, the calling party""s communication device establishes an end-to-end call on the voice network.
In this manner, the present invention provides advantages for both the called party and the calling party. For the called party, voice-ringing extends the basis of call-screening from the information currently available, such as the caller""s originating phone number and/or name, to include many additional kinds of information. Because the call-type and social information conveyed in a voice-ring can assist the called party in the decision to answer the call, it is likely that more call-s that the called party wants to engage in, and has the time to engage in, will be answered. For the calling party, voice ringing provides an opportunity to negotiate the terms of a conversation that is not currently not available with traditional ringing. In natural conversation, the initiator relies on this negotiation heavily. It is likely that voice-ringing will result in more call completions for call-s that are critical to the caller.
Currently, many called parties accomplish call screening with answering machines. Voice-ringing moves the locus of call screening from the called party""s answering machine to the communications network. Voice-ringing conveys call-type and social information in a natural, flexible way. It permits users the freedom to invent their own ways to maximize call completion and does not restrict them to information pre-specified by the telephone network, as with traditional telephone ringing systems.